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Summer Recap

Maddie Daly | Sunday, August 25, 2013

Ah, summertime. That time of year full of hot sun, cold drinks, late nights and little responsibility – well, unless you were one of the many overachieving Notre Dame students with a life-sucking, unpaid, horribly demeaning internship. Then all I have to say is, enjoy syllabus week before the real work starts. We all need a break sometimes. For the rest of us, who spent our days serving tables, nannying children, using cash registers, making coffee runs or lifeguarding at a pool, summer was pretty darn great. No homework, no papers, no tests – just a day full of work and a night full of fun, not to mention weekends crammed with concerts, beach trips, road trips and bonfires. If this sounds at all familiar, congrats! You did summer right. Here’s a recap of the hottest trends of summer 2013 to remind you of how much fun you’re now missing out on while you start on that 250-page reading assignment.

Music If you were lucky enough to attend one of the many music festivals around the country this summer, I am extremely jealous of you. I was stuck blasting playlists from Spotify and watching 10-second Snapchats of concerts from my friends. Anyway, here’s some music that will remind you of summer 2013.

Concerts I may be biased because I’m from Chicago, but from what I heard, Lollapalooza this year was absolutely unparalleled. With headliners such as Phoenix, The Cure, The Killers and Vampire Weekend, with additional performances by Kendrick Lamar, Alt-J, Ellie Goulding, 2 Chainz, St. Lucia and so many more, Lolla was arguably the biggest musical festival of the summer. And then there was Summerfest, Wisconsin’s enormous music festival that claims to be the world’s biggest. With 60 bands in just three days, I guess Summerfest is pretty tough to compete with. Music fans flocked to Milwaukee to hear groups play anything from rock to country to indie. With bands such as Grouplove, Fun., Jason Aldean, MGMT, Imagine Dragons and O.A.R., Summerfest attendees were surely not disappointed. In addition to the music festivals, there were, of course, several hot artists on tour that stopped in all the major cities this summer. Shows by Lady Gaga, The Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Blake Shelton drew thousands of fans to venues all over the country.

Fashion Not much to talk about here, literally. Especially obvious at summer music festivals was the lack of clothing worn by the female population. Typical concert attire this summer included either a bikini top or a bandeau with some sort of high-waisted shorts or skirt, finished off with a pair of Keds or leather sandals. Leaning uncomfortably close to trends from the late 80s and early 90s, this new look was seen on girls ranging from tweens to teens to 20-somethings. This outfit was most likely purchased at either Urban Outfitters or Forever 21, two stores that fully supported the crop top, mid-drift 90s look. As always, guys sported the bro tank and basketball shorts look for most of the summer. For dressier occasions, though, young men typically turned preppy with Ralph Lauren button-downs and Sperrys.

Television For the college student, summer is a chance to catch up on all the television programs we were too busy to watch during the school year. For me, shows like “Arrested Development,” “Breaking Bad,” “Scandal” and “Homeland” occupied my free hours. What did we do with our spare time before Netflix Instant Watch? It can be difficult to find shows airing new episodes during the summer, but it is definitely not impossible. Note, however, that the quality of shows significantly decreases in the summertime. Take new reality show “Who Dunnit” for example. This show seemed like an interesting concept, placing contestants in a real-life Clue game, solving murder mysteries. But the terrible acting and ridiculously over the top scenarios in the first episode failed to capture my attention. Other popular yet mindless summer shows included “The Bachelorette,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Catfish” and “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” Personally, I can’t wait for all my favorite shows to start back up in the fall. Even though the temperature is dropping and school is back in session, let’s not forget all the good times of summer 2013. From the music to the fashion to the time-wasting television watching, summer 2013 was definitely one for the books. Now go finish that reading assignment so you can enjoy the real last week of summer – syllabus week. Contact Maddie Daly at mdaly6@nd.edu The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.